Pete Rose officially is baseball's hit king despite his lifetime ban for betting on baseball. The Topps Company Inc., longtime maker of baseball cards, doesn't feel bound by the sport's decisions.

Topps omitted Rose's name from this year's set, even though the company notes on individual cards how many hits a player needs to reach Rose's record of 4,256. Other record-holders are named; ChicagoSideSports.com showed on one card that Jesse Orosco is acknowledged as the leader in games pitched.

ChicagoSideSports.com quoted a spokesman for Topps, Clay Luraschi, as saying the omission was “a simple decision” and that it was "plain and simple" that Rose should not be acknowledged. Luraschi did not elaborate, the site reported.

MLB has not moved to strike Rose's record even though former commissioner Bart Giamatti banned Rose and declared him permanently ineligible for the Hall of Fame in 1989. Rose, 71, later admitted that he bet on baseball while manager of the Cincinnati Reds in the mid-1980s, but insisted that he always bet on the Reds to win.